Premium rate numbers

tomduncan

If a company supplies an 0871 number for customer service, are they obliged notify you of the cost per minute?

Does this have to be printed on the letter where they tell you about the number?

AFAIK an 0871 number can be charged at any rate the owner wishes, so it is kind of important to know the cost.

mpg

They can cost anything between 5p and 10p.

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/output/for-the-public.aspx

tomduncan

According to BT (add http:// ):

business.bt.com/phone-services /08-and-09-numbers /0871#overview

The cost is 6 + x pence where the owner of the number decides what x is. Not sure who's site to trust, BT or some organisation I've never heard of.

I'm not being sarcastic, I really don't know which I would trust more.

My real question is, what are the obligations of the organisation using these numbers to notify the variable cost to their customers? If they include the number on a letter, must they also state the cost?

cleo1299

tomduncan wrote: »

According to BT (add http:// ):

business.bt.com/phone-services /08-and-09-numbers /0871#overview

The cost is 6 + x pence where the owner of the number decides what x is. Not sure who's site to trust, BT or some organisation I've never heard of.

I'm not being sarcastic, I really don't know which I would trust more.

Phonepayplus is the regulator so personally I would definitely trust them more than the BT site. But in this case the BT site doesn't contradict what the regulator says -- they've just neglected to mention that there's a max of 10p per minute (from a landline -- could be a lot more from a mobile).

My real question is, what are the obligations of the organisation using these numbers to notify the variable cost to their customers? If they include the number on a letter, must they also state the cost?

The entire Code of Practice is available on the Phonepayplus site if you want to plough through it. My guess is that it may be something like, they have to tell you once you call the number.

Where you press a red button on the tv which results in a telephone call, they're obliged to tell you how much it costs because you can't see the number.